1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a call handling device connected to a user telephone for communicating information about an incoming call to a user and allowing the user to transmit call handling instructions to the call handling device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an office environment, workers typically have stationary phones connected at their desks and also carry mobile phones so that they may be contacted when they are away from their desks. Since many workers do not have administrative assistants to answer their phones, they rely on call forwarding from their desk phones to their mobile phones to ensure that they do not miss important calls. Typically, a worker will program the desk phone to forward calls to the user's mobile or cell phone at least when the worker knows that he or she will be away from the desk for a significant period of time.
Meetings present a challenge to the call forwarding scenario. On one hand, the worker does not want to disturb other participants of the meeting with repeated phone rings. On the other hand, the worker does not want to miss certain “exceptional case” calls such as, for example, a call the worker is waiting on or an emergency call. Accordingly, the worker must balance one factor against the other when deciding whether to forward calls to his cell phone during a meeting.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,905 (Pepe) discloses a Personal Communications Internetworking (PCI) network with a CallCommand service for controlling voice calls using a PDA connected to the PCI network. However, the PCI network is connected between a wireline and a wireless network and is not directly connected with any terminal. Accordingly, all messages to each terminal are required to be routed to the remotely located PCI network. This reference also discloses call management of voice calls in which the user is notified by a wireless terminal or PDA of an incoming call. The user may answer the call using the wireless terminal (if the wireless terminal has that capability), screen the call in real time, redirect the call, or send the caller a short-message.